Jane just posted a new piece of concept art for Moebius. You can see it here.

The concept was done by Andy Hoyos, one of Sierra's old artists (he worked on KQ5, KQ7, and Phantasmagoria, among other games). Jane says on the update that he was one of Sierra's best artists so Roberta Williams always snagged him for her own projects. But now Jane finally gets to work with him herself!

What does everyone think of the art? It's not what I was expecting but it has a cool look... more graphic novel like than, say, Gray Matter.

You had to ask or I might have kept shut since it isn't good form to criticize Jane Jensen's games, it seems.

"Graphic novel", in my book, is just a pretentious term for comic book and what I saw of Grey Matter in trailers made it pretty obvious to me that there was an extensive use of exceptionally bad comic book art. As far as I'm concerned, using it is a cheap cop-out; instead of hiring really good artists and animators, developers are beginning to go for this dreck.

I realize I'm bucking the current trend, which seems to be the notion that graphics don't matter if the story is good, but they do to me. I'm not buying a game that looks like that, I don't care who writes it. I'd rather play a Frogwares game, a game like The Book of Unwritten Tales or struggle through an RPG like The Witcher 2, where the developers have respect for the gamer and the game's look. Extremely good artists and animators worked on those games. Surely there must be many more like them for Pinkerton Road to turn to.

Gil.

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"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."

Are you specifically reacting to the new concept art? Or do you just dislike "graphic novel style," in general?

Of course your opinion is valid, I'm not trying to argue. I'm just not sure if your comments are specific to the Moebius artwork that was released today, or more about Gray Matter...?

Personally, I didn't like Gray Matter's cutscene art at all (although I thought the backgrounds were very nice). That being said - Moebius seems to be going in a much different direction than Gray Matter, which surprised me a bit at first, but I think it's an exciting direction. In particular, the piece by Andy Hoyos that I linked to above looks nothing like the Gray Matter cutscenes -- to me that's encouraging!

I like the style of the concept art, but I don't know how close to the final product it will be. Comparing the concept art of some of the casual games I've played to the finished product, the actual game may be far more realistic looking. Jane does say "This is not a regular game environment, it's more of a concept piece to set the style of the game." So we don't know whether the actual game will have such dramatic scenery.

Even assuming the final product has graphics just like the concept art, a lot will depend on how well the scene is animated. After seeing how well some casual games have been animated, I don't think many gamers will be satisfied with a game composed of static screens, even pretty ones.

Can someone tell me what is the good reason to upgrade from $50 to $100? And how I can upgrade when I have not even received any confirmation e-mail apart from having paid $50 in the first place? I have access to nothing. Where is that upgrade button, or even confirmation that I have contributed? Have you all received something I have not, even after 24 hours after joining Pinkerton Road Studios? Help! There are only 12 hours left to go! And it is already 2h19 in the morning in London, I will fall asleep soon and miss the deadline.

Featuring:• Jane Jensen and Robert Holmes will be on the thread for the duration• We’ll post a countdown update every 5 minutes along with some cool image from Jane’s game archives• Forum members can post ONE image as ‘inspiration’ for Pinkerton Road’s upcoming games, whether it’s just a spooky or evocative image, a picture of a place that would make a good game location, a good luck wish, whatever you like. (Please don’t post full game or story ideas. Please don’t post anything lewd, inappropriate or pornographic.)

Wow, we've come so far in such a short time! I can't even keep up with all the comments over there. Wish I didn't have to work and practice so much.

I think it will be fantastic if Pinkerton Road takes off, and we get a game or two every year. Imagine two new Jane Jensen games every year. Her games would probably pretty much take over my annual lists. As for now, really looking forward to Moebius and Mystery Game X.

Tomer, if we don't make the $450k, and stay around $425ish or so, do we get only one or the other - either dialogue or orchestra?

Wish I could keep up with the comments, but too much to do! I've been so busy lately, which is good, but sadly keeps me from other things I would like to do as well. Glad you're keeping up with it, though. Gameboomers is represented!